Greater New Orleans

A Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to the Gulf of Mexico Saturday to rescue four people who survived the crash of their small plane 170 miles south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Rusty Costanza / The Times-Picayune)

Four people stranded on a disabled boat were rescued Monday by the U.S. Coast Guard near Morgan Harbor Pass. A man and his three children left a Hopedale marina Sunday morning on a fishing trip and by Sunday night, they were long overdue to be back.

The family's only injuries were sunburn and mosquito bites, according to a Coast Guard representative.

On Sunday at 11:37 p.m., the man's wife called the Coast Guard after she found her husband's truck still parked at the Breton Sound Marina in Hopedale. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans responded to the report of the overdue boat.

The boat, a 17-foot Bayliner named the 'Italian Stallion,' had left the marina on Sunday at 4:30 a.m.; the family planned to fish near Comfort Island and they were expected to return at 2:30 p.m., the Coast Guard said. But by 8:30 a.m., the boat had become disabled and was anchored.

After getting the report that the family was missing, the Coast Guard issued an Urgent Marine Information broadcast, and launched a 20-foot boat crew and an MH-65 helicopter crew from Air Station New Orleans. It was on the second leg of its search that the helicopter crew spotted a flare from the boat near Morgan Pass.

The helicopter crew hoisted the father and three children aboard, and took them to the Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, where the man's wife was waiting.